In
general, our research explores how environment, physiology, and behaviour
influence the abundance, distribution, and coexistence of mammal
populations. Our research is conducted both in the lab and in the field,
often in collaboration
with northern communities or one of our many partners
(Click here to visit our Collaborators &amp Funding Section).

One of our research focuses is on energetics (the process by which animals
acquire and assimilate energy from the environment, and allocate
assimilated energy between maintenance, growth, and reproduction).
We firmly believe that understanding the ecological implications
of energetics ultimately requires field studies that integrate
measures of energy intake and expenditure, under conditions of
known resource availability, and in situations where behaviour,
survival and reproductive success can be documented.
Another of our research focuses is on understanding, predicting and monitoring environmental change impacts on northern wildlife and
traditional food security in Canada.

We are interested in the many energetic linkages between red squirrels' environment, metabolism, reproduction, and behaviour.
We maintain an active, long-term collaboration with
Stan Boutin (Alberta),
Andrew McAdam (Guelph),
John Speakman (Aberdeen)
and colleagues in investigating the ecology of a free-ranging population of red squirrels in Kluane, Yukon (Kluane Red Squirrel Project).
Red squirrels are interesting because they are small, live in cold places, and rely on a boom and bust food supply,
but yet do not hibernate. Kluane red squirrels provide a unique opportunity to identify the energetic solutions
to these environmental challenges within a well-quantified resource, life history, and fitness context.

We are interested in the energetics of resource anticipation, acquisition and
amplification in eastern chipmunks. We work with Denis
Réale (UQAM), Fanie Pelletier (Sherbrooke), and Dany
Garant (Sherbrooke) to study, in the eastern townships of Quebec (Nature Conservancy), the behavioural, physiological,
and genetic responses of a free-ranging population of eastern
chipmunks to natural and artificial resource variation. Chipmunks are particularly
interesting from an energetic viewpoint because, as a
food-hoarding hibernator, they have incredible energetic
flexibility that they use to deal with extreme natural variability
in resource abundance. This collaboration provides a unique
opportunity to assess correlations between metabolic and
behavioural traits, and how these traits independently and
collectively influence free-ranging populations.

This facility, allowing us to combine field and captive approaches in our research on energetics and ecophysiology, is located on Macdonald campus.
It is equipped with 30 individual cages consisting of one compartment held within a controlled environmental chamber and connected to another compartment at natural outside temperatures and photoperiod.
In the same facility, there is a flow-through respirometry system available to measure metabolic rate of captive animals.
It has been operational 3 years, with a design that tries to encourage natural behaviours and examine physiological and behavioural consequences of torpor expression in eastern chipmunks during the hibernation period

In collaboration with northern partners and indigenous communities, we are interested in understanding, predicting and monitoring
impacts of environmental change on traditionally harvested wildlife species. Working with Laurie
Chan (UNBC), Colin
Scott (McGill), Stan
Boutin (Alberta), and Dominique
Berteaux (UQAR), our approach combines community-based participatory research with studies of climatic and environmental determinants of
the distribution and abundance of species.

We work with the Cree Nation of Wemindji and
the Wemindji Cree Trappers Association,
as part of the Paakumshumwaau-Wemindji Protected Area Project,
to better understand environmental determinants of local traditonal food and furbearing species abundance, with a particular focus on furthe beaver.
With the collaboration of Wemindji Cree trappers and community members, who have provided beaver tissue samples and
guided us in the field, we are investigating beaver's diet and population structure using DNA and isotope analyses, and
also estimating local wildlife abundance using simple winter snowtracking surveys. More recently, we have been involved with the Cree Nation of Chisasibi to better understand the relationships between coastal vegetation, geese abundance, and Cree harvest and culture.

Representative Publications

Milligan, H.E., M.M. Humphries. 2010. The importance of aquatic vegetation in beaver diets and the seasonal and habitat specificity of aquatic-terrestrial ecosystem linkages in a subarctic environment. Oikos. 119: 1877–1886.

Jarema, S.I., J. Samson, B.J. McGill, M.M. Humphries.
2009.
Variation in abundance across a species’ range predicts climate change responses in the range interior will exceed those at the edge: a case study with North American beaver.
Global Change Biology, 15:508-522.

As part of the YNNK IPY project on environmental change and traditional use of the
Old Crow Flats (OCF), near Old Crow, Yukon,
we work with a mutlidisciplinary research team to study the distribution
and abundance of wildlife in relation with environmental change and traditional food security.
In close collaboration with Yukon Environment, North Yukon Renewable Resource Council, VGFN Government
and with the Old Crow community, we are involved in monitoring moose
movements in and out of OCF using telemetry, estimating muskrat abundance by doing aerial surveys
and in developing a community-based muskrat carcass collection program to monitor muskrat condition and genetic relatedness.

As part of The Narwhal Expedition,
we collaborate with the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization, with Marie Auger-Méthé and Hal Whiteheadat Dalhousie University, and with Polar Sea
Adventures, to study and monitor narwhal populations in northern Canada.
We use visual observation, photo-identification and acoustic recording to investigate narwhal movements and social behaviour
in relation with environmental change and increased shipping traffic.